Hey there, I’m Jess

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN JESS IN/ON/AT:

I’m Jess, and I want to show you how to leverage holistic digital marketing and data to drive results, revenue, and really awesome engagement.

I know why I care about you, but here are three reasons you should give a hoot about me:

I will help you make sense of social media and running legendary campaigns.

I’ve worked with some of the world’s largest companies to optimize their online properties and execute social strategy.

I’ve written the book on social media (literally).

HOW DID I GET HERE?

I’ve always been here, on social media that is. I’ll never forget the moment the University of Wisconsin got Facebook – a dorm mate ran down the hall yelling, “WE’VE GOT FACEBOOK!.

Kids these days will never understand not being able to get on Facebook for lack of the proper .edu email address or having to wait weeks to get approved to join Pinterest or tracking down that ever elusive Google+ invite. Glad we put those dark times behind us.

DOUBLE REWIND

Growing up in Madison, WI, I basked in the glory of early entrepreneurship beginning in elementary school as the head of my neighborhood’s lawn mowing empire and saleswoman of radio-recoded mixtapes. I graduated shortly thereafter to building websites, fixing computers, and a handful of other hustles before proudly graduated college with two profitable companies in hand.

Sure, I worked hard. But I loved the stuff. While other students sat in class checking Facebook or surfing Reddit, I was coordinating over 40 contributing writers and managing user acquisition for a site named ‘Top 10 Career Blog’ 3 times.

MY BIG MOMENT

I started running social media for the site and zing! bam! pop! the world made sense. Testing different Twitter copy and Facebook images and watching the change in traffic and ads revenue was my chessboard, my rubix cube, my map, my recipe…

These were the problems I was born to solve. I was hooked.

MOVING ON.

I moved to NYC for my clients and started working for one of the largest A/B and Multivariate Testing companies, running tests on Fortune 500 sites that get more traffic in one day then this site will get in a year. I saw it first hand: the power of data to drive marketing results on a huge scale.

It was captivating and I enjoyed the work, but something was missing. It addressed one component of the entire digital experience: the website. I wanted the opportunity to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, from that first touch point (usually social media!) to driving people to a site and beyond.

THE NEXT STEP

I began working for an exciting, fast-growing startup where I combined my passion for social media and conversion optimization to help an entirely new set of clients. And get this: This startup happened to be API partners with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest so I had exclusive access to insights, tools, and techniques generally reserved for power users and rarely shared publicly. A social nerd’s dream.

While there, I split my time between training, developing strategies, and executing paid campaigns on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter for some of the world’s largest publishers, media companies, startups, and entrepreneurs.

From there I took those skills and applied them to television and entertainment clients, working for a fast-paced, award-winning agency building digital campaigns to promote new product releases, television shows, and events.

I’M ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES

My heart lays in helping startups, entrepreneurs, and companies build strong, scalable marketing teams while also building their marketing practices so I followed that passion and shifted my focus to consulting and producing content for Social Nerd’s Guide.

I also contribute to a handful of social media and digital marketing sites, speak at events around the country (e.g., Social Media Week, Social Media Breakfast, Social Media Bootcamp), and tweet the occasional photo of my rescue french bulldog Cricket. I am also an avid gym-goer with a deep and abiding passion for lifting. You can learn more about that side of me on my Fat Girl Lifts Instagram.

One last thing.

I want to thank you for stopping by my site, I’m so glad you’re here! In return, I offer you the chance to request any specific content you’d like to see or ask any and all social media questions on the Ask Me Anything page.